Brandon Asher its he’s more into mountain biking than running, but the Ramona High freshman wanted to play a high school sport, and the CIF San Diego Section doesn’t offer biking.
“I’ve been biking competitively 2 ½, three years and I figured that running would probably help my biking,” said the 14-year-old ninth-grader, who quickly discovered that biking also helps running.
“I ran for training and fun, so when I ed the cross country team for summer runs, I fit right in.”
A cross country team has seven runners on the varsity, of whom the first five score team points where, like golf, the low score wins.
Asher has established himself as the Bulldogs’ No. 3 man while continuing his daily workouts on his bike. At the recent Sundevil Invitational, he placed fifth in the freshman race, his first over the section 3-mile course at Balboa Park, running 18:14.3.
He’s learning strategy and how to trust his body but realizes many of the things he does on his bike carry over to running.
“Comparatively, biking is a sprint,” said Asher, who has only been running since halfway through the summer. “Biking is a lot harder on my body.”
Asher, who has won his share of mountain bike races, also had a major crash that he walked away from. After checking out his bike, he was relieved to see the major damage was just a big scratch.
One of the advantages of running is he doesn’t need to wear the heavy racing helmet or other protective equipment and the odds of a major collision causing injury on any course is far less than biking.
“Yes, running is hard but it’s also a lot of fun,” said Asher, who cracked the 18-minute barrier with a 17:24.8 at the Grit n Grind Invitational Saturday. “Both are very competitive and instead of crashing with my bike, I have to look out for things like squirrel holes on the course where you can twist an ankle and fall.
“Because I’m so new at running, my goal is to increase my training mileage so I can compete comfortably.”
First-year coach Mike Pendergraph saw early on that Asher had many of the qualities of a good distance runner, which he was at Norte Vista High in Riverside where he qualified for the state championships.
“He could be great in both running and biking,” Pendergraph said. “You have to he’s just a freshman and it’s all new to him. His biking helped him to be the No. 3 runner on varsity, so now we’re working on tempo and building up his cardio. He already has strong legs, and he’ll just get better.
“He already has a good work ethic and he’s very competitive.”
Asher’s first varsity race was a two-miler at in the Vaqueros Stampede where he finished second — by a full minute.
“The winner was really fast,” said Asher looking back a little in awe. “I could see him the whole time, but he was pretty good. I discovered I like the longer distances, like three miles, and, of course, the hills don’t bother me because that’s what we have in Ramona.”
His second race was more of an eye-opener. Competing in the Ian Cumming-Tim Latham Invitational at Rohr Park in Chula Vista, he finished well back in 52nd place, clocking an 11:46.7 for 2-miles after the race was shortened because of excessive heat. He said that’s where he felt the impact of being a newcomer competing against veterans.
“I got stuck in a big group of runners I couldn’t get past,” Asher said. “I realized I’ve got to learn how to get out of something like that, just like I’ve learned tactics on my bike.”
Even his fifth place at Sundevil was a new experience. After getting boxed in at the Ian Cumming-Tim Latham meet, he tried the opposite strategy.
“I took the lead early,” he said, “but after two miles, I was gassed.
“You have to learn to read your body and what the others are doing, and that’s where biking experience really helps.”
So, is Asher a biker who runs or a runner who bikes? Only time will tell, and he has lots of time.
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